Senior Vice President of Product Development and Video at Forbes. Spent the first half of my career in television, the second half in digital media. Worked mostly at companies with triangle logos: Fox Television and AOL. Covered the serious and the sensational at A Current Affair. Created online and mobile content, products and communities at AOL. A few startups, Chief Product Officer for True/Slant and now Forbes. And let's not forget that "AOL after Dark" project...

They are, indeed, an odd couple: Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes and Jimmy Fallon writer Mike DiCenzo, a.k.a. Mets Bucket Hat Guy. Fans of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon know Mets Bucket Hat Guy from his orange hat, Hawaiian shirt and word association riffs that put Kevin Bacon’s six degrees to shame. We kicked it up to 100 degrees by challenging Mike to connect all the names on our Forbes Celebrity 100 list. The rules were simple. Mike had to start with #100 Adriana Lima and end with #1 Jennifer Lopez; the order in the middle was up to him as long as he included all 100 names. The biggest surprise? Watch at 5:38 when Steve Forbes shows Mets Bucket Hat Guy how it’s done (seriously, you have to see it to believe it).

According to Mike, his comedy career has been a combination of “timing, luck, a lot of hard work and staying humble.” He graduated from Boston University, interned at Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Onion, then wrote for the Onion for three years. In October of 2008 he heard about a new show in the works and took a chance. “I was writing for the Onion and I sent in a writing packet to the show before it was even a show,” Mike said, “and luckily Jimmy and Mike Shoemaker (the executive producer) liked it.”

The concept for Mets Bucket Hat Guy started innocently enough in 2010, when Jimmy Fallon hosted the Emmys. ”I wrote an intro for co-presenters Matthew Perry and Lauren Graham where Jimmy connects their two names doing a stream-of-conscious runner,” Mike recalled. “He liked it, so we came up with a way to do that on the show.”

The outfit was an accident — or, perhaps, fate. Mike overslept and was late for work, the first and only time that’s ever happened to him. He threw on a Hawaiian shirt and a red Mets bucket hat he got for free at a baseball game, and arrived at the office two hours late. He wore the outfit, he said, “un-ironically.” Since then some things have changed. When Mike arrived at Forbes to shoot our video, he had a tan garment bag carefully draped across his arm. Inside? That very same Hawaiian shirt and red Mets bucket hat which now reside in the Fallon wardrobe department.

So how did a 28-year-old comedy writer end up with 100 celebrity names and a former Presidential candidate? It all happened in a matter of minutes.

Six weeks ago a few of us were sitting in the 3rd floor conference room at Forbes, tossing around ideas for the Celebrity 100. I had been thinking about how we might connect the names on the list, and remembered the word association from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. We googled and watched Mets Bucket Hat Guy in awe.

“What if we write something like that,” I said.

“We should just ask that guy to do it,” Managing Editor Dan Bigman suggested.

Within two minutes, our lead Entertainment reporter Dorothy Pomerantz had the Late Night phone number. Five minutes later Bigman was talking with Fallon writer Mike DiCenzo, discussing the idea. “I spent 15 straight hours one Saturday just figuring it out,” Mike said. ” Some people go out on Saturday nights. I think of how to connect Howard Stern to JK Rowling.”

We then had the idea of including Steve Forbes as the foil; we knew Steve had the comedy chops from his hosting gig at Saturday Night Live. Mike sent us the script, we coordinated schedules and the shoot was on. Best moment for Mets Bucket Hat Guy? ”Steve Forbes totally outdid me by walking in and nailing his runner in one take. One take!”

Shooting in the Forbes newsroom

Make sure you watch at 5:38 when Steve Forbes fires back at Mets Bucket Hat Guy with his own How You Like Me Now riff.

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